718 research outputs found
Optimizing the parameters for hydro-jet dissection in fatty tissue — A morphological Ex Vivo analysis
Summary: Background: The advantage of water-jet dissection is the preservation of vessels and nerves. Especially in liver surgery, blood loss can be significantly decreased. The use of water-jet dissectors in other fields of surgery is currently under investigation. The preparation of vessels in fatty tissue is of special interest for plastic surgeons. The optimal technical parameters were investigated. Methods: Abdominal fat tissue of fresh cadavers was cut under standardized conditions with different parameters of the water-jet dissector. Results: One single pass at a cutting pressure between 20 and 60 Bar makes an incision of 8 mm. Deeper cuts can be achieved by repeated application on the same cut. Five passes at 40 Bar results in a depth of 1.7 cm without vessel damage. If the applied pressure is 50 or 60 Bar, up to 7% damaged vessels can be found. The water-jet dissection leads to a water uptake of the cut tissue. Conclusions: The optimal pressure for water-jet dissection of fatty tissue lies between 30 and 40 Bar. The effect of the mechanical irritation of the vessels has to be investigatedin vivo before using the water-jet dissector for preparation of blood vessels in humans, e.g. for flap dissectio
Shot Noise and Full Counting Statistics from Non-equilibrium Plasmons in Luttinger-Liquid Junctions
We consider a quantum wire double junction system with each wire segment
described by a spinless Luttinger model, and study theoretically shot noise in
this system in the sequential tunneling regime. We find that the
non-equilibrium plasmonic excitations in the central wire segment give rise to
qualitatively different behavior compared to the case with equilibrium
plasmons. In particular, shot noise is greatly enhanced by them, and exceeds
the Poisson limit. We show that the enhancement can be explained by the
emergence of several current-carrying processes, and that the effect disappears
if the channels effectively collapse to one due to, {\em e.g.}, fast plasmon
relaxation processes.Comment: 9 pages; IOP Journal style; several changes in the tex
Purinergic P2X7 receptors regulate secretion of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist and beta cell function and survival
In obesity, beta cells activate compensatory mechanisms to adapt to the higher insulin demand. Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) prevents obesity-induced hyperglycaemia and is a potent target for the treatment of diabetes, but the mechanisms of its secretion and regulation in obesity are unknown. In the present study, we hypothesise the regulation of IL-1Ra secretion by purinergic P2X7 receptors in islets.
Production and regulation of P2X7 were studied in pancreatic sections from lean and obese diabetic patients, non-diabetic controls and in isolated islets. IL-1Ra, IL-1β and insulin secretion, glucose tolerance and beta cell mass were studied in P2x7 (also known as P2Rx7)-knockout mice.
P2X7 levels were elevated in beta cells of obese patients, but downregulated in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Elevated glucose and non-esterified fatty acids rapidly activated P2X7 and IL-1Ra secretion in human islets, and this was inhibited by P2X7 blockade. In line with our results in vitro, P2x7-knockout mice had a lower capacity to secrete IL-1Ra. They exhibited severe and rapid hyperglycaemia, glucose intolerance and impaired beta cell function in response to a high-fat/high-sucrose diet, were unable to compensate by increasing their beta cell mass in response to the diet and showed increased beta cell apoptosis.
Our study shows a tight correlation of P2X7 activation, IL-1Ra secretion and regulation of beta cell mass and function. The increase in P2X7 production is one mechanism that may explain how beta cells compensate by adapting to the higher insulin demand. Disturbances within that system may result in the progression of diabetes
Full counting statistics of Andreev scattering in an asymmetric chaotic cavity
We study the charge transport statistics in coherent two-terminal double
junctions within the framework of the circuit theory of mesoscopic transport.
We obtain the general solution of the circuit-theory matrix equations for the
Green's function of a chaotic cavity between arbitrary contacts. As an example
we discuss the full counting statistics and the first three cumulants for an
open asymmetric cavity between a superconductor and a normal-metal lead at
temperatures and voltages below the superconducting gap. The third cumulant
shows a characteristic sign change as a function of the asymmetry of the two
quantum point contacts, which is related to the properties of the Andreev
reflection eigenvalue distribution.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
The L&E of Intellectual Property – Do we get maximum innovation with the current regime?
Innovation is crucial to economic growth – the essential path for lifting much of the world population out of dire poverty and for maintaining the living standard of those who already have. To stimulate innovation, the legal system has to support the means through which innovators seek to get rewarded for their efforts. Amongst these means, some, such as the first mover advantage or 'lead time,' are not directly legal; but secrets and intellectual property rights are legal institutions supported for the specific purpose of stimulating innovation. Whilst the protection of secrets has not changed very much over recent years, intellectual property (or IP) has. IP borrows some features from ordinary property rights, but is also distinct, in that, unlike physical goods, information, the object of IP, is not inherently scarce; indeed as information and communication technologies expand, the creation and distribution of information is becoming ever cheaper and in many circumstances abundant, so that selection is of the essence ('on the internet, point of view is everything'). Where rights on information extend too far, their monopolising effect may hamper innovation.
The paper investigates the underlying structure of IP rights and surveys what we know empirically about the incentive effects of IP as about industries that flourish without formal IP
Shot noise from action correlations
We consider universal shot noise in ballistic chaotic cavities from a
semiclassical point of view and show that it is due to action correlations
within certain groups of classical trajectories. Using quantum graphs as a
model system we sum these trajectories analytically and find agreement with
random-matrix theory. Unlike all action correlations which have been considered
before, the correlations relevant for shot noise involve four trajectories and
do not depend on the presence of any symmetry.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (a mistake in version 1 has been corrected
Coulomb induced positive current-current correlations in normal conductors
In the white-noise limit current correlations measured at different contacts
of a mesoscopic conductor are negative due to the antisymmetry of the wave
function (Pauli principle). We show that current fluctuations at capacitive
contacts induced via the long range Coulomb interaction as consequence of
charge fluctuations in the mesoscopic sample can be {\it positively}
correlated. The positive correlations are a consequence of the extension of the
wave-functions into areas near both contacts. As an example we investigate in
detail a quantum point contact in a high magnetic field under conditions in
which transport is along an edge state.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages includes 2 figure
Effect of incoherent scattering on shot noise correlations in the quantum Hall regime
We investigate the effect of incoherent scattering in a Hanbury Brown and
Twiss situation with electrons in edge states of a three-terminal conductor
submitted to a strong perpendicular magnetic field. The modelization of
incoherent scattering is performed by introducing an additional voltage probe
through which the current is kept equal to zero which causes voltage
fluctuations at this probe. It is shown that inelastic scattering can lead in
this framework to positive correlations, whereas correlations remain always
negative for quasi-elastic scattering.Comment: 5 pages latex, 5 eps figure
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